This year's calendar to celebrate Beckett's 100th anniversary is crammed with literary events celebrating the life of the modern age's most lovable pessimist, most of them, one imagines, awash with talk of the timeless human condition portrayed in his work.Nothing could be further from the truth, says Terry Eagleton.

Ireland: theme park or academic talking shop? Terry Eagleton referees the issues after reading a prejudiced account of prejudice: R F Foster's The Irish Story: Telling Tales and Making It Up In Ireland